Topband: Re: Weird noises on 160

[Jim Monahan]

Tom, W8JI wrote:

"ALL cable and wiring ground wires entering a dwelling must have a common
point ground, otherwise you have a real fire and personal safety hazard.

73 Tom"

To take this a step further, I've been having a problem with intermittent line noise
that the local utility is investigating and have found a suspect pole transformer.

Based on Tom's comments, I went outside and determined that the phone, cable
and power box share a common ground to a pipe that has a ground rod at each
end.

To my dismay, I've discovered, with an ohm meter, that electrically nothing is connected
to each other because all of the connections are quite rusty. I scrapped the metal at
various appropriate points to take readings.

They have never been checked before as long as I've lived here (14 years).

While these connections were painted originally, that coating has long since gone away.

This will be corrected immediately as soon as the utility returns to pull the meter so it can
be repaired properly. And, this includes replacing the existing rods.

The only ground system for my house, apparently, are the solid copper ground rods for my 
station which I check annually. They are covered with RTV and it really protects them
from degradation.

73, Jim, K1PX

K1PX at msn.com<mailto:K1PX at msn.com>